NICARAGUA paid tribute to Brian Willson yesterday, marking the 33rd anniversary of the US peace activist’s “heroic sacrifice” when he lost both legs while trying to block arms headed to the so-called Contras.

Mr Willson was part of the US Veterans Peace Action group in 1987 that blocked rail tracks at a naval weapons station in California to stop the shipment of weapons to US-backed right-wing forces fighting to bring down Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista government.

One of the trains failed to stop, hitting Mr Willson. His injuries were so severe that his legs were amputated below the knee. It was subsequently revealed that he had been on an FBI terror list and that the train crew had been ordered not to stop that day.

Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo said that the Vietnam war veteran and pacifist, now 79, was “a hero of solidarity and peace.”

She said that Nicaraguans were paying “a deserved homage of love, of recognition of their courage that we will never forget,” recognising Mr Willson as “the representative of the good people of the United States.”

“Honour and glory to brother Brian Willson,” Ms Murillo said.